Reuters - U.S. diplomat Chris Hill will try to re-engage North Korea on how to verify its nuclear claims and rescue a crumbling disarmament-for-aid deal in Pyongyang this week, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Reuters - Consumers facing rising unemployment kept their spending unchanged in August even though incomes rose, according to a government report Monday that showed optimism about the economy's direction was fading.

Reuters - Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Monday appointed a prosecutor to examine potential criminal charges in the Justice Department's firings of nine federal prosecutors after an inquiry found evidence several of the dismissals were politically motivated.

Reuters - Stocks plunged on Monday as the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion financial sector bailout plan, renewing fear about frozen world credit markets and the global economy's health.

Reuters - U.S. lawmakers prepared to vote on Monday on a $700 billion government fund to buy bad debt as the global financial crisis kept markets on tenterhooks by forcing European authorities to rescue troubled banks.

AP - The AL Central is still up in the air and the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers are stuck in a game that means everything to one team and very little to the other.

AP - Some 15,000 enthusiasts have assembled the world's largest jigsaw puzzle in the southern German town of Ravensburg, Europe's biggest puzzle maker said.

AP - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform at the 2009 Super Bowl halftime show in Tampa, Fla., the NFL and NBC announced Sunday night.

AP - A Cadbury spokesman says preliminary results show its Chinese-made chocolates contain the industrial chemical melamine.

AP - Attorney General Michael Mukasey named a prosecutor Monday to investigate whether Bush administration officials violated federal law in the firings of nine federal prosecutors. The scandal stripped the Justice Department of its leadership, damaged its credibility and sparked a historic showdown in court.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama says he's confident Congress will eventually work out a bailout for the hobbled financial industry even though the House rejected the latest plan.

AP - Citigroup agreed Monday to purchase Wachovia's banking operations for $2.1 billion in a deal arranged by federal regulators, making the Charlotte-based bank the latest casualty of the widening global financial crisis.

AP - Fear swept across the financial markets Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrials down as much as 705 points, after the government's financial bailout package failed the House.

AP - The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive into recession without it.